How Things Change
by andiiwandii
Summary: Sakura Haruno knew her life was full of secrets, but never did she expect to find out secrets about the dark side of her village's history that are somehow connected directly to her. She might not be so ordinary as she thought she was.
1. Prologue

Okay, so this is my first story in a LONG time and I really hope people love it. I have a whole complex plot going on in my mind and hopefully I can write it all out in a good amount of time.

But this story is going to have some adult themes, family abuse, sexual content, and maybe some other things, but the point being is that this novel at times is going to be on the mature side, so don't say I didn't want you!

**Warning**: I don't own Naruto, or any of the plots, characters, or anything awesome that comes from Naruto. If I did... well let's just say I'd be a happier person!

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><p><strong>How Things Change<strong>

Prologue

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><p>Darkness had never felt so cold, so lonely, and just so vulnerable. The trees were just a blur as she ran past them, not daring to stop and take even a second to regain her breath. Blood and sweat stuck to her body as if it was another layer of skin; hair on her face plastered due to the sweat. Breaths were coming out raggedly now but despite that, she didn't stop. Fear had struck her to the very core and she wouldn't allow her feet to even hesitate for a moment. That one moment, just one little second, would mean the end of her.<p>

Fear gripped her heart in a harder clench, and she willed her feat to run even faster. She fought down a sob; she would not allow weakness to show.

She had to be strong… she had to be.

Just as her foot was going to take another step forward, another step to just let her escape, she jerked backwards and ended up falling. She fell to the ground and stared up in horror at the sight that she never wanted to see again.

A black figure stood on front of her, staring down at her quivering form. She didn't pay attention to the figure though; all she could focus on was the figure's eyes.

A lilac colored eye with black ripples centered on the pupil.

The rinnegan.

Her scream echoed through the entire forest until it was left ringing in her own ears.

The last thing she saw before darkness consumed her was the large soft glow of the moon, glowing down upon her as if trying to reveal all its darkest secrets to her.


	2. Chapter 1

Longer chapter, hopefully you enjoy it :)

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><p><strong>How Things Change<strong>

Chapter One

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><p>Sakura shot up out of bed, drops of sweat flying off of her from the fast movement. She sat there, not quite realizing where she was and not knowing she was clutching her blankets so hard it was making her knuckles go white. When it finally dawned upon her that she was at home, in the comfort of her own room, was when she brought her hands to the front of her face and cried.<p>

Her body trembled with all the suppressed screams she was holding in; she didn't want to awaken the people asleep in her house.

Eventually she brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her chest. She rested her mouth against her knees and slowly started to rock herself.

_It's the same dream…_ Sakura thought to herself, confusion and frustration present in that thought.

_**Your mind is trying to tell you something, and you do not understand it. **_ Her inner self told her in a criticizing tone.

Sakura allowed herself to laugh quietly about that. Of course when she was at her weakest, her inner self would deem it the best time to criticize her.

_Well you live in my mind; shouldn't you understand it by now? _ Sakura questioned in a mocking tone. Her inner self just rolled her eyes and replied:

_**Just because I live here doesn't mean I can access every part of your mind.**_

Sakura sighed and pushed her inner self to the corner of her mind. She really wasn't in the mood to deal with her moodiness at the moment.

Sakura uncurled herself from the ball she had made herself into and glanced at the clock. She groaned out load when she saw that it was only 1 o'clock in the morning.

"Wonderful, I have training with the boys and I'll be working with no sleep." She whispered in frustration.

With one more groan, she flopped back down onto her pillows and laid on her back, arms outstretched.

She looked out the window. In the big night sky, the moon glowed down upon her. She stared at it for awhile, rethinking her entire dream.

Being the knowledge craving person she was, she had already read the entire library and was now working on reading all the documents in the Hokage tower. Forbidden or not, she was going to get her hands on them to absorb the information.

Yet all that knowledge had not given her any clue as to why she was having dreams about the rinnegan. As far as books told her, the rinnegan was just a myth, a folk story, a legend.

Sakura signed in frustration at not knowing the intention of her dream. She stopped looking out the window and glared at her ceiling. She was still glaring at the ceiling until she heard motion in the room next to hers. She froze.

The squeak of the bed sent her heart into a panic, and that panic intensified when she started to hear footsteps coming towards her room.

Sakura immediately feigned sleep as her bedroom door creaked open and a figure stepped into her room.

The figure was Shigure Haruno, her father. He wasn't a tall man, but his giant muscles made up for the lack of height. Over the years of making weapons for the shinobi of the village had earned him the muscles, despite himself not being a ninja. His hair was a dark chocolate brown and his eyes were a cold, light grey. Many saw him as a quiet man, but Sakura knew better than most people about her father.

He was an extremely cruel man with no limits in regards to disciplining Sakura. When she was younger, he was simply just strict and avoiding his temper tantrums wasn't too difficult. However, when Sakura's mother died of an unknown disease, he changed for the worse. Everything that Sakura did wasn't perfect in his eyes, and his fist would eventually make his point somewhere on her body.

Sakura had slowly learned to just avoid him, but when that failed she learned how to hide the bruises. She didn't want anyone to know how she had a weakness. She knew her teammates suffered from more traumatic experiences with their parents, so she thought little of what she dealt with her father.

Shigure Haruno peered down at Sakura, and Sakura tried to not make any questionable movements. Her father grunted before leaving her room and returning to his.

Sakura stayed still until she knew that he had fallen asleep. When she was sure, she let out a breath.

Sakura went back to staring at the ceiling. She wondered when she'd be out of this hell of a place she was forced to call home.

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><p>"Sakura-CHAN!" A voice shouted from behind her.<p>

Sakura smiled, forced the blush that wanted to creep on her face down, and turned around.

Running towards her was none other than her teammate Naruto Uzumaki, and not far behind him was her other two teammates, Sasuke Uchiha and Sai.

She smiled and waited for them to catch up to her.

They were all 17 now, and have had a lot of experiences together that have made them one of the closest teams in Kohona.

When they were just 13, barely a couple of months after their failed attempt at the Chunin exams, Sasuke had been kidnapped by Orochimaru while on a mission with another team. To say that the Uchiha clan was furious would have been quite an understatement. Sakura was pretty sure that if Itachi Uchiha didn't step in between the Hokage and the clan's elders, there would have been a civil war going on. Yet Itachi Uchiha had declared that he would go to retrieve Sasuke back and no one would interfere, including Sasuke's teammates. Naruto had been pretty upset about that, screaming and yelling that he needed to leave to get Sasuke, but Kakashi and Jiraiya had convinced him that training would help Sasuke out better.

Itachi left without informing anyone to hunt down Sasuke, and kill Orochimaru. Sakura and Naruto didn't know what to do with themselves, and they often just sat in their training grounds. Not after long though, Tsunade forced them accept a new team member and a new captain since Kakashi had also disappeared in search of Sasuke.

That was when Sakura met Sai and Yamato. Yamato seemed fairly nice but a bit creepy at times. Sai was the main problem.

Dickless.

Those were the first words that he said to his new team, directed at Naruto. Sakura has still never seen Naruto turn so red in anger before.

During their time together, Sakura and Naruto learned to accept Sai's unique personality and accepted him as part of Team 7. Eventually Naruto left with Jiraiya to train and Sakura was alone with her new team members. Sakura, knowing she needed to improve her own skills if she didn't want to disappoint her boys, searched for her own teacher to train her. She went straight to Tsunade.

Tsunade didn't hesitate to accept Sakura as her apprentice, and starting training immediately.

After about 3 months of training, Sakura was doing paperwork (Tsunade said it was for training, but Sakura knew what bullshit was) in the hokage's office when a nindog appeared in the room.

Kakashi's nindog.

Sakura dropped the pen she was using to write with when she heard the message the nindog was sent to bring.

Itachi and Kakashi had found Sasuke.

Sasuke was coming _home_.

Sakura immediately ran out of the office in search of Naruto, who had just come home for a short visit with Jiraiya.

They only had to wait a week before Itachi and Kakashi arrived at the gates with Sasuke on Itachi's back. Sakura could have sworn the village went deaf for at least a week from the scream that emitted from Sasuke's mother's mouth when she set her eyes on his sleeping form. Mikoto ran up to her sons and hugged both of them until Itachi managed to escape from her grasps while sliding Sasuke into her arms.

Sakura smiled at the scene, and turned to look at Naruto who was standing next to her with a grin easily ten times bigger than hers. Sai was standing on her other side, but had a puzzled look on his face.

He titled his head and held his chin in his hands. While staring at the unconscious Sasuke in his mother's arms, he asked Naruto and Sakura.

"What is that? Why is she crying… I thought Sasuke coming back was supposed to be a happy thing?"

Sakura smiled softly.

"That's what we call love. She's crying because she's happy to have Sasuke back." Sakura replied and looked at Sai to see if he understood.

He continued to stare at the pair but eventually closed his eyes and nodded. Sakura smiled bigger and grabbed Sai and Naruto's hands and laughed. Sai looked at her with a blank expression while Naruto stared at her in shock with a blush tinting his cheeks.

"Team 7 is reunited again, and we're even bigger this time!" She laughed, and looked at Sasuke with a content smile on her face. Sai and Naruto smiled at her expression and turned to look at Sasuke, who was still being held by his mother.

It took a week for Sasuke to heal in the hospital and another week for the interrogation team to make sure Orochimaru hadn't corrupted his mind somehow, but after that he was allowed to join Team 7 again. After that, Team 7 had become Kohona's fastest growing team. They quickly passed their Chunin exam and well into their training for the Junin exam. Despite the times when Sakura was about to castrate her teammates because of all the arguing they seemed to get into, she loved her boys more than anything. She watched them all grow up into the men that the entire village respects. Especially Naruto.

Naruto had grown the most out off all of them.

He had earned the respect of the entire village, the very village that hated him for what he carried inside of him. He was the strongest ninja in the village with Sasuke not far behind.

He was amazing.

Sakura stared down at the floor, using her hair to hide her face while she tried to fight down the blush that wanted to explode on her face.

An image of Naruto flashed through her mind; his enormous smile, his deep blue eyes that she always seemed to get herself lost in, and his body…

Sakura was sure her face was about to catch on fire any second now.

"Eh? Sakura-Chan what's wrong?" Naruto asked her as he leaned down to try to see her covered face which caused Sakura to jump in fright.

"Don't sneak up on me like that BAKA!" Sakura screamed at him and punched him so hard that he flew past Sasuke and Sai as they walked towards Sakura.

They didn't even spare Naruto a glance as he flew past them and landed face first against a wall.

"You seem tense today Ugly," Sai commented and Sasuke remained passive about the whole ordeal.

Sakura glared at Sai and just turned around and continued heading towards their training. Sasuke smirked and followed her.

Sai turned to Naruto, who was unconscious on the ground, decided it was too much work to carry him and followed Sasuke and Sakura.

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><p>The sun was pounding their flesh with a million rays of piercing heat. Not a single cloud was in the sky to offer the comfort of shade that accompanies a cloud. Sweat was pouring out of all of their skins.<p>

Sakura laid on her back, arms stretched out on the warm ground. Panting from her team's 3 hour nonstop training session, she turned to look at what her boys were doing.

Sasuke was leaning against a tree. Sweat was rolling down his face but from Sakura's perspective, he seemed comfortable enough. She glared at him for being able to get comfortable after such an intense workout for a second before turning to Sai.

Sai was also laying on the ground, but unlike Sakura, he had his arms over his face and appeared to be asleep.

Sakura turned to where Naruto was, but he wasn't there. A confused expression spreading on her face, she sat up and looked around.

Still no Naruto.

"Hey guys, where is Nar-"Sakura was about to ask but a pair of arms had scooped her up from the floor. She squeaked at the sudden movement and screamed when the pair of arms had dropped her into the nearby river. She swam to the water's surface and opened her eyes to see who had dropped her into the water.

Naruto stood on the grass near the river, with a smile on his face and his hands on the back of his head.

"You looked like you wanted to cool off Sakura-chan!" He smiled at her, laughing a bit when she glared at him.

She stopped glaring at him and smiled brightly at him. He stopped smiling and starting to back away from her.

"Well Naruto-_kun_, you also look like you want to cool off." Sakura stated, moving towards Naruto with the same smile on her face.

Naruto continued to back away, putting his hands in front of body to create a little barrier between him and Sakura. He nervously laughed.

"Well you know, I don't think it's that ho-SAKURA-CHAN!" He said but yelled when Sakura leaped at him and tackled him to the ground.

Sakura laughed at Naruto's expression when he realized she tackled him to the ground. Sakura laughed even harder when she sat up on him and wrung out her long wet hair on his face, in which he yelled her name again in protest.

She stopped laughing when she realized what position she had gotten in.

When she had tackled him, he had fallen on his back with her on top of him, and when she sat up to wrung her hair out, she started to cradle his hips.

_Oh god… _She thought as she realized what part of Naruto she was sitting on.

Naruto seemed to realize it too, since he was starting at her with a blush on his face and his mouth hanging open, not quite knowing what to do.

Sakura placed her hands lightly on his chest, not sure what else to do with them. Naruto continued staring her but his expression changed his eyes…

They burned with a passion.

They burned with a passion _for her_.

Sakura gulped, and opened her mouth to say something, what she didn't know, until she heard quiet chuckles from nearby. In less than a second Sakura was off of Naruto and standing next to him and staring at anything but him.

Naruto closed his eyes and let out a tiny grown of frustration. He sat up and looked towards the source of the quiet chuckling.

"What the fuck are you laughing at Teme?" He growled at Sasuke.

Sasuke just smirked and crossed his arms.

"You're an idiot," was all he said, and closed his eyes as if to take a nap. Naruto growled again and stood up and made his way for the Uchiha.

Sasuke opened up his eyes and glared at Naruto when Naruto was hovering over him. Before either of them could say something that would lead into another one of their arguments that ending with them beating each other up, they were interrupted.

"Naruto Sasuke Sai," Sakura said which made Naruto turn around towards her and Sasuke to look at her. Sai removed his arms over his face and looked at her.

Her attention wasn't on them however, so they turned to look at where her attention was focused on.

An anbu was standing a couple of feet away from them, holding an envelope.

"Sakura Haruno, the Hokage summons you but requests you read the contents of the envelope first." The anbu stated while handing Sakura the envelope.

Sakura accepted it warily and thanked the anbu for the message. He nodded and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Sakura stared down at the envelope.

_Why would Tsunade want me to read this first? _Sakura questioned, flipping the envelop to the back to see if there was anything written on it. There was nothing.

_**Who knows? Won't find out until you read it.**_ Her inner stated with a bored tone. Sakura rolled her eyes at her inner self's statement and opened the letter to read it.

By this time, her three boys had started walking towards her to see what the content of the letter was. They froze for a split second when they saw Sakura turn grey in an instance but rushed to her when she fainted and started to fall.

Naruto was the first to get to her and caught her before she fell. Sasuke was the one who caught the letter that had slipped her hands when she fell and was making its way to the ground. Sasuke's eyes narrowed when he looked at what was on the paper. Sai also looked at it, but was more confused.

"What is it?" Naruto asked, wondering what could have been written on the paper that would cause Sakura to faint so easily.

Sasuke flipped the paper so that Naruto could see the paper.

There was nothing written on the paper, only a simple drawing of an eye.

A lilac colored eye with black ripples centered on the pupil.


	3. Chapter 2

Thanks to everyone who review and everyone who added this to their story alerts and/or favorite story list! Hopefully you enjoy this chapter and I'll work hard to get the next one out quickly :).

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><p><strong>How Things Change<strong>

Chapter Two

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><p>"Sakura-chan? Sakura-chan!" The pinkette's blonde teammate said as he held her in his arms trying to wake her up. Her other two teammates hovered over the blonde, waiting to see if the girl woke up.<p>

All of this was observed by the anbu figure hiding in the trees. He took off his mask to replace it with one that suited him much better.

An orange mask with black swirls.

The figure watched the scene in front of him without really seeing it; he had other things on his mind.

The girl had fainted when she saw the picture of the rinnegan. That reaction could only mean one thing…

He had found the key to his final plan. He smirked as he started to fade out of the trees.

_You will be mine soon._

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><p>White.<p>

That was one way to describe the hospital. It was simply all white. Despite working there frequently, Sakura had never grown to love the atmosphere of the hospital. It was all too plain and simple and always made Sakura on edge, because on simple thing could destroy something so perfect… it made her sick to know that.

So to say Sakura was delighted to wake up and find herself in the hospital would have been a complete lie.

Sakura cracked her eyes open a little bit, and upon seeing all the white, groaned and refused to open her eyes.

Now that she was conscious, she could hear the beeping of the machines, the footsteps out in the hall, but more importantly the breathing coming from the person next to her bed.

Sakura, completely against her will, cracked her eyes open and slightly turned her head to see who was sitting beside her.

"Tsunade-shishou?" Sakura said weakly. She tried to make an attempt to sit up but Tsunade stood up and slightly pushed Sakura down. Sakura pouted and crossed her arms and looked at her sensei.

"Shishou, an anbu-san said you wished to speak to me." Sakura stated and looked up at Tsunade, who was still standing.

Tsunade frowned at her and crossed her arms, a puzzled look on her face. Sakura tilted her head and frowned.

"Shishou?" Sakura asked, starting to frown. Something was going on, and to hell if she was going to be kept in the dark.

"I didn't send any anbu to you asking you to see me." Tsunade stated, looking out the window clearly in deep thought.

Sakura looked at her teacher in surprise. If she hadn't sent an anbu to see her, then why did the anbu say she did…

"Tsuna-" Sakura started to say but was interrupted by the sudden slam of the door. Both Sakura and Tsunade instantly turned to look at who opened the door.

Sakura forced down a blush, something Tsunade noticed and smirked about, when she saw that it was only Naruto in the door way. He was panting and trying to catch his breath. He looked at Sakura with a concern look in his eyes, and was about to say something but Kakashi pushed him out of the way and he ended up falling on the floor.

Sakura giggled as Kakashi proceeded to step directly on Naruto while he put his book away and headed towards Sakura.

"How is my favorite student feeling?" Kakashi asked her as he walked over and stood beside her bed.

Sakura laughed. "Kakashi-sensei, isn't it bad for you to choose favorites?"

Kakashi looked back towards the door to see Sasuke step right on Naruto's head as Naruto was trying to stand up. Naruto, once again flat on the floor, started to yell curses at him and Sasuke responded by stepping on his head again.

Kakashi turned back to Sakura and placed a hand on her head and ruffled her hair.

"Not when my other students are complete idiots." He said while smiling at her. Sakura laughed.

"I can't really argue with that," She said as she watched Sasuke and Naruto get into another argument. She smiled at how familiar the scene in front of her was.

But then remembering the conversation she was having before Naruto burst into the room, Sakura turned to Tsunade, who was watching Sasuke and Naruto with annoyance clearly displayed on her face.

"Tsunade-shishou! What do you mean you didn't send an anbu-san to retrieve me?" Sakura asked which caused the three males in the room to focus on the conversation.

Tsunade turned and looked at her with a hard expression on her face. She crossed her arms and let out a sigh.

"I didn't send any anbu to you today, which only means that the person who appeared in front of you was an imposter." She said. Sakura instantly could tell that her teacher was worried and confused. Why would someone pretend that the Hokage needed to speak to her? Did that mean she was in danger of something? Sakura started feeling a sense of dread just envelop her.

What did someone want with her?

Then she remembered the reason why she fainted. That picture the anbu gave her…

The Rinnegan.

Sakura started to panic. _What if they're somehow connected to the dreams I've been having?_

Sakura could feel that her inner-self was pondering what she just said.

_**We'll just have to wait to find out.**_ Sakura sighed, THAT was really helpful.

She was thinking about why someone would be concerned with her dreams when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her, and a hand land on her head. Sakura looked next to her to see that while she was busy thinking, Naruto and Sasuke had seen the distress on her face and had moved towards her.

Naruto had wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his chest while Sasuke had moved next to Naruto and placed his hand on Sakura's head in a protective manner.

"What would someone want with Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked angrily, his arms tightened around Sakura.

Tsunade glared at Naruto. "If I knew that, I wouldn't be in here dealing with you brat," She said and looked at Kakashi.

Kakashi had his hands in his pockets and was staring at Sakura. Being stared at in such an intense way made Sakura nervous so she moved into Naruto a little bit more.

"Sakura, when you saw the picture of the rinnegan, why did you faint?" Kakashi asked all humor in his voice gone.

Sakura nervously laughed. "Well, I've been having… nightmares... the same one for awhile now." She replied, letting her nervousness come out in her voice. Kakashi frowned, but before he could say something Tsunade interrupted him.

"Nightmares? For how long?" She asked, frustration starting to leak out of her voice.

Sakura nervously laughed.

"About 3 months now,"

"3 MONTHS!" Tsunade yelled. Sakura shrunk into Naruto and she felt both her boys tighten their protective holds on her. Sakura knew she should have mentioned the nightmares to her shishou sooner, but she didn't want to appear weak.

Tsunade closed her eyes and tried to suppress her frustration at her apprentice. She of all people should understand that sometimes dreams could mean a deeper truth than anything that the person could know. More importantly though, was finding out the reason why Sakura was having nightmares about a certain eye technique that was only talked about in myths.

Tsunade looked at Kakashi again, and he nodded, understanding that he was to report to her office later. She turned to look at the three students that reminded her so much of her own team. She frowned. She would do anything to prevent their team from suffering the same one her own had.

"Sasuke, Naruto, don't leave Sakura's side until I send an anbu to guard her." Sakura was about to say something in protest but she cut her off.

"We don't know who is after you Sakura, or what their intentions are so you WILL be guarded or I'll give you midnight shift for a month," Tsunade threatened and Sakura shut her mouth and looked away with a hurt look on her face.

Tsunade sighed. She knew she was making her student feel weak, but she was going to have to deal with it. She was not going to let her walk around unprotected to save her student's pride.

"And we'll know it's not an imposter this time?" Sasuke asked, a hint of a mocking tone laced in his voice. He was staring at Tsunade with a scowl on his face.

Tsunade smirked.

"Oh no, this time you'll know exactly who he is," They stared at her in confusion but she refused to tell them who. She started walking towards the door, but before she left she turned to look at Kakashi.

"You better not be late Hatake." She scolded, knowing her threat would probably fall empty on the masked ninja. He nodded so she turned and left the room.

Kakashi watched her leave than turned to his three students. Sakura was leaning against Naruto, her face void of emotion and for once, her eyes matched the expression on her face. Sasuke still had his hand curled protectively in her hair and was glaring at the door that Tsunade had just left through. Naruto had his arms tightly around Sakura, and was slightly leaning against her hair glaring at the blankets on the hospital bed.

Kakashi sighed.

_Just when things were starting to get really peaceful too. _He thought to himself as he pulled out his familiar orange book.

"I'm leaving now, don't leave her alone." Kakashi said as he walked towards the door. He knew without even having to look that Naruto and Sasuke were glaring at him.

Naruto and Sasuke continued to glare at Kakashi until they were sure he was a good distance away from the room. They both looked at Sakura, and instantly their gazes softened.

Sasuke would never openly admit it, but he did love Sakura. Not in the way that she used to be with him, but he saw her as a younger sister. He cared about her and about how she felt even though he had a weird way of showing it.

Sasuke glanced at Naruto staring at Sakura and smirked. He certainly wasn't the idiot on his team. He knew Naruto liked Sakura (the whole village practically knew that) but he also knew that Sakura liked Naruto, even if she wasn't fully aware of it herself. He noticed the way that she fell into Naruto's arms without really thinking about it and the way she would always hide the blush she got when Naruto entered into her sight.

_Idiots. _He thought as he stared at the two.

His smirk vanished when he thought about why Sakura was in this predicament though. He would get to the bottom of this. He didn't survive living with Orochimaru without picking up a few skills on information gathering.

Sasuke took his hand off of Sakura's head and put his hands in his pockets.

"Take care of her dobe," He said as he made his way for the door. There was no time to waste, he was going to find the person that was trying to get Sakura and he was going to kill them.

Naruto and Sakura watched as Sasuke left the room, closing the door behind him. An awkward silence came into the room as soon as the door shut.

They both suddenly became aware of how close they were to each other.

_He's so… warm._ Sakura thought while she subconsciously snuggled more into his chest.

_She smells so sweet_. Naruto thought as he inhaled the scent of her hair he was leaning against.

They both were aware of the beat of the other's heart and could clearly hear it despite the beeping sounds in the room. Without them knowing, their faces slowly gained a pink tint.

Naruto was the first to move, and when he moved he looked straight into her eyes.

Sakura's pinkish tint grew more into a redish tint and she felt her heart stop in her chest.

"Naruto…" His name escaped her lips, barely coming out as a whisper. She stared back into his blue eyes, losing herself completely.

Their faces started to move towards each other, slowing being drawn towards the other. Their eyes started to shut as the distance between them got smaller and smaller.

Their eyes were almost shut now, and their lips just a breath away from each other.

"Sakur-"The room door slammed opened causing Naruto to jump up and practically hurl himself into the opposite wall.

Sakura turned, her face a thousand shades of red, and looked to see who had opened the door.

Entering the room was none other than the Rock Lee, student of the famous Green Beast of Konoha.

Once his eyes landed on Sakura, his face got a worried and concern expression.

"My Sakura-chan! Once I heard that you were in the hospital I dropped training and rushed to be by your side." He said as he walked towards Sakura, completely oblivious to Naruto.

Lee got to Sakura's bed side and kneeled. Sakura nervously laughed as he grabbed both of her hands in his.

He looked at her seriously and straight in the eyes which caused Sakura to fidget nervously. She liked Lee and thought he was an amazing person, but his stare wasn't something she could sit and be comfortable with.

"Beautiful flower of the springful youth of Konoha, I promise to protect you no matter what I am up against just to ensure that you are always free to smile and live life to the fullest," He pledged to her, still staring her right in the eyes.

Sakura laughed nervously again. "Lee-san there's really no need, I can handle myself…" She told him, praying in her head that it would work and he wouldn't make such promises.

Lee stood up, curled his hand into a fist and put it on his chest and was about to say something but Naruto interrupted him before he got a chance.

"Bushy-brow…" Naruto muttered, staring at the ground trying to suppress his anger as he picked himself up off the floor (he had fallen when he flung himself into the wall). Lee turned and stared at Naruto in surprise.

"Naruto-kun! I didn't see you there! Are you also here to pledge your undying love and loyalty to Sakura-chan?" Lee asked with a fire in his eyes. Sakura stared at him with her mouth open and Naruto stared at him as if he was crazy.

Before Naruto could think of a reply to Lee's bizarre question, an anbu had walked into the room. Naruto and Sakura immediately tensed up.

Naruto moved until he was in-between Sakura and the anbu member. He glared.

"Who the hell are you?" He asked, not bothering to hide the suspicion in his voice.

The anbu member just chuckled at Naruto and went to take off his mask.

Naruto's suspicion immediately melted away and was replaced with surprise. Sakura gasped in shock.

"Itachi-san?" Sakura asked, still to shock to come up with a better thing to say to the anbu member.

Itachi just smirked at his younger brother's teammates. He looked at Sakura and his first words were directed at her.

"Under direct orders from the Hokage, I will be your body guard until further notice."


	4. Quick Update!

Quick Update!

I'm so so so sorry for this . I had posted the newest chapter, only to later realize it didn't make sense with what I wrote in the first chapter DX. I feel like such an idiot. Bleh. But now I'm going to have to rewrite the latest chapter so that it fits along with what I originally intended.

I'll have it posted by the end of the day!

Sorry about this again! DX.

-Your stupid author -_-


	5. Chapter 3

Okay! So this is my take two on this chapter. I didn't really change much so if you read the original one, its not really different at all. But for those of you who haven't, let me give you a little details about this.

This will always be a NarutoxSakura story, there WILL be other guys who like Sakura, and girls who like Naruto but that won't grow into anything serious.

The Uchiha Massacre didn't happen, it works better with my story if it didn't happen so let's just go with this flow shall we? :D And Itachi may be totally out of character, but I love him this way and its my story so HAH. *pout*

Hopefully you enjoy it and review it, I just love reviews :)

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><p><strong>How Things Change<strong>

Chapter 03

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><p>The sun was shining and a few clouds were scattered throughout the sky. Birds flew happily along and the chatter of villagers doing their shopping filled the village's market street.<p>

Balancing two grocery bags in each hand, Sakura maneuvered her way through the crowds of people doing shopping of their own. Every now and then a villager would look at Sakura and wave a hello which Sakura would return with a smile, seeing as how her hands were occupied. Despite her outward appearance of being relaxed and happy, she was fuming inside.

None of the villagers knew that as Sakura made her way across the village, she was being followed by the highest skilled ninja that the village currently had.

Itachi Uchiha.

Sakura scowled to herself. It had already been a week since Itachi had been assigned to watch her just in case the unknown enemy decided to strike. It had only taken an hour before Sakura got annoyed with being followed the whole freaking time. If it was anyone else but Itachi she would have scared them away by now. But oh no, her shishou just HAD to give her the hardest man in the world to scare as her protector.

Sakura sighed as finally turned off the market street and headed towards her own house. It wasn't that she had a problem with Itachi, on the contrary, she actually enjoyed his company despite Sasuke's disapproval of it. It's just that when he's on a mission he's a completely different person.

_He's completely boring. _Sakura complained to herself as she turned another corner.

_**Boring yes, but so fucking HOT.**_ Her inner commented, drooling as she thought about the elder Uchiha.

Sakura rolled her eyes and pushed her inner to the back of her mind. Yeah, the elder Uchiha WAS pretty attractive but he just wasn't her type. She needed someone who could have a conversation that wasn't always so serious, someone who could make her laugh until she cried, someone…

_**Someone with blonde hair, blue eyes and the nicest as-**_ Her inner tried to say but Sakura shoved her back into the farthest corner in her mind. Sakura turned a shade of red that resembled a ripe cherry.

_It's Naruto… Naruto! Sure he's my best friend, he can make me smile when I didn't think I would ever again, and he's always there when I need someone…_ Sakura rambled to herself, staring at the ground as she was walking, destination completely forgotten.

The more she thought about Naruto, the more confused she got. Wasn't he supposed to be just her best friend, just her teammate? She just didn't know anymore.

Sakura felt a sudden breeze to her right when caused her to look up. Itachi had appeared right next to her and he took off his mask and straightened up.

"Sakura-san, you do realize that you just passed your own home about five minutes ago." Itachi told her, staring at her with a blank expression. Sakura blinked.

It took her a minute to fully realize what he just told her. She laughed nervously.

"Of course I know that! I just did that to make sure you weren't slacking off on your job Itachi-san! Now that I know for sure that you aren't, let's proceed back to my house," Sakura stated, closing her eyes and turning around to walk back to her house. Her lips twitching at the embarrassment that she had just caused herself.

Itachi smirked at her retreating back and started to follow her, not bothering to go back to hiding seeing as how he had already revealed himself.

It took them a little less than five minutes before reaching Sakura's house. Sakura slid the groceries on her right arm onto her wrist as she fumbled in her pockets for her keys. Once she found them, she stuck the key in the lock, unlocked it, and walked in her house.

Being not only an active ninja on duty, but a medic nin AND Tsunade's apprentice, Sakura's salary was a bit larger than most's, which was evident in the size of her home.

It was a two story house. On the first floor there was the living room, the kitchen, dining room, two bedrooms and a bathroom. Upstairs there was two regular bedrooms, one master bedroom and two bathrooms. Sakura specifically chose this house so that she had a bedroom for each of her boys. Sasuke and Naruto had the two downstairs' bedrooms while Sai got the upstairs' one. Sakura let Sai have the upstairs' one because she trusted him the most to not look through her things. She had decorated each of the boys' room to suit them.

Sai's had dark wooden floor with crème colored walls. He had a twin sized bed in the corner with crème colored blankets. His furniture consisted of a small dresser, a book shelf filled mostly with art supplies and an easel. There was a big window on one of the walls with dark brown curtains around it.

Sasuke's also had dark wooden floors, but with dark blue walls instead. He had a huge bed covered in dark red blankets in the center of the room, with a large window right behind it. There was also a desk, a bookshelf and a dresser against the walls in the room. In the corner of the room, a tomato plant hung.

Naruto's had light wood floor with pale orange covered walls. He had a twin sized bed in the corner of the room, and was covered in black blankets. His furniture was a small dresser against the wall next to his bed, and he had a tiny table in the middle of the room with two pillows for chairs. He had various plants in the room that he had insisted having in the room despite making Sakura care for them.

Despite all three boys having places of their own to sleep, Sakura had wanted them to always feel welcomed with her and wanted them to have a place to crash if they ever stayed at her house till late into the night.

The other bedroom upstairs was her father's room. Sakura had gotten her father a room that she hoped would make him happy, but ever since her mother's death he was rarely ever at home opting instead to get wasted at the local bars. This is why Sakura deemed it okay to have a room for each of her boys. Though on the nights that he did decide to come home, Sakura banned anyone from coming over to her house. It was those nights that Sakura felt her weakest, because she couldn't escape her father's hate.

Sakura walked towards her kitchen with Itachi in tow. She placed her bags of groceries on the floor and started to place all of the food in the place they belonged.

It had been about four days since she had seen any of her boys. After they had tried to kidnap her away from Itachi, Tsunade had gotten pissed off and sent all of them on a weeklong mission. Sakura sighed as she stood on her tippy toes to put a canned food in the cupboard.

She was just about to reach high enough to place it when a hand shot out and grabbed it, placing it on the shelf with ease. Sakura turned slightly to see Itachi smirking at her. She pouted.

"I could have placed that on the shelf myself _Uchiha-san_," She said, getting some distance between her and Itachi. She sent him a glare as she went to go get some more food to put away. She was completely oblivious to the fact that Itachi's eyes watched her intently as she bent over to get more food from the bags.

Itachi smirked. "If that were true, then how come you didn't do so immediately Sakura-_chan_?"

He smirked even more when he saw Sakura send him one of her death glares. Oh how easy it was to get her frustrated.

He leaned against the kitchen counter as she moved around the kitchen placing all the food in their appropriate places. She ignored his question, knowing if she just fell into his stupid banter she would end up looking like an idiot.

Once she was done unloading all the groceries, she got the paper backs and carefully folded them and bent over to place them under her sink.

As she was standing up she felt a presence behind her which caused her to immediately tense.

She frowned as two arms went passed her and placed their hands on the counter in front of her, trapping her.

"What are you doing Uchiha-san?" She asked, letting her annoyance seep through her voice. She tensed even more when she felt his hot breath on her neck.

"Merely doing my mission Sakura-chan," Itachi stated, moving even closer to her, placing his chest right on her back.

_Oh, that's IT! _Sakura growled in her head and spun around. Itachi raised his eyebrows at her as she jabbed him in the chest with her finger.

"Since when did your mission require trapping girls against a kitchen counter?" She snapped at him, feeling her temper rising quite quickly. She was NOT going to just allow this bastard to treat her however he pleased, not matter how far above rank she was.

Itachi smirked at her.

"Starting with the fact that the trapped girl just so happens to be the most attractive thing in this village."

Sakura opened her mouth to snap back at him when she froze.

Wait, what did he just say?

Sakura felt her face heat up and her eyes widen.

_Did Itachi just say I was pretty? _She thought numbly to herself.

Itachi leaned in closer and Sakura blushed even more. She was too shocked to push him away.

"I want you Sakura Haruno, "He whispered, Sakura feeling it on her lips.

She was too shocked to say anything back. She had no idea that Itachi could even think about women like this, much less think about her like this. Sasuke had always stated with complete confidence that Itachi was a cold-hearted bastard that only thought about himself. Sure, Itachi had always been nice to Sakura more than other people but they all thought it was just to piss Sasuke off.

Apparently that wasn't the case.

He was moving closer and Sakura's eyes widened even more. She knew he was going to try to kiss her… it would be her first kiss. Right when he was about to move in for the kiss, Sakura got a flash of blonde hair in her mind.

No.

She shoved Itachi off of her using a bit of chakra to help her. He slammed against the counter behind him and he stared at Sakura with an annoyed expression. She curled her hands into fists and pulled them to her chest and stared at the ground.

_Naruto…_ She thought as she stared at the ground. She didn't want to kiss Itachi… she wanted to kiss Naruto. She wanted her first kiss to be with the knuckleheaded blonde teammate of hers.

_Oh my god… Naruto…_ She looked back at Itachi with wide eyes, not really staring at him.

She liked Naruto.

She _liked _Naruto.

Only when Itachi took a step forward did Sakura really stare at him in front of her. He stood right in front of her and took her chin in one hand, making her look up at him.

He narrowed his eyes at her.

"Why not?" He asked her.

Sakura stared up at him and replied simply, with no hesitation in her voice.

"I refuse to kiss someone who does it so rudely and doesn't even bother to take me out on a date first," She stated while glaring at him. Itachi stared at her for a minute before smirking.

That was when they both felt the three chakra signatures rapidly approaching.

Itachi pulled back a little bit but not taking his hand off of Sakura, and turned around just in time to see the three ninjas walk into the room.

Sai walked in first, calm and quietly until he saw Itachi and Sakura. He stopped walking and narrowed his eyes.

Naruto and Sasuke followed, bickering about something that Sakura couldn't quite catch, and stopped when they saw Sai just standing there.

"What the hell are you just standing there for?" Naruto questioned, looking at Sai then following his gaze until his eyes landed on Sakura and Itachi.

His eyes immediately narrowed.

Sasuke was the first to speak, his voice laced with his intention to extremely hurt his older brother.

"Why are you touching Sakura Itachi?" He questioned.

Itachi didn't say anything. He suddenly grabbed Sakura's hand, startling her, and pulled her into his chest.

The three boys tensed and the air in the room grew even tenser.

"I have every right to touch what I intend to make mine little brother," Itachi said tautly. The boys suddenly froze and Sakura felt the color drain from her face.

He was that serious?

Sakura looked at Naruto. He was completely tense and Sakura could tell that anger was building up in him.

"Naruto…" Sakura called out to him, hoping to try to calm him down somehow. She was going to be PISSED if Itachi caused Naruto to ruin her home in some way.

"She's never going to belong to you bastard," Naruto growled at Itachi. A hint of red was starting to enter his eyes and Sakura's heart skipped a beat in panic.

Sasuke was still staring at his brother in shock, always believing that Itachi was asexual and didn't even think about woman in that kind of way, and Sai was staring warily between Itachi and Naruto.

Sakura started to squirm in Itachi's arms.

"Itachi let me go before I kick you the fuck out of my house!" Sakura complained, trying to free herself out of his grip but to no success. Itachi looked down at her.

He gripped her chin in his hand once more, and brought her face close to his.

Her heart skipped a beat and she froze.

"Not before I claim you as mine," He said, his words breathing out onto her lips.

What happened next was too fast for Sakura to realize what happened until it was over.

Next thing she knew, she was being held by Naruto while Sasuke and Sai held out kunai at Itachi, their anger spilling from their eyes.

Itachi glared at them.

"The Hokage says that it's fine for the three of us to watch Sakura in your place, big brother." Sasuke said, while tossing Itachi a scroll validating his statement. Itachi didn't even bother to read it.

Itachi looked Sakura in the eyes. Sakura gripped onto Naruto a little tighter.

"I will convince you to change your mind Sakura," He stated, his confidence evident in his tone. He stared at her for a minute longer before poofing out of the room.

Sakura stared at the spot that he was just in before looking up at Naruto.

Naruto was glaring at the spot that Itachi was just standing in it, as if wishing it would burst into flames. When he felt her eyes on him, he looked down at her and his eyes immediately softened.

"Sakura-chan, are you okay?" He asked her, his voice soft and his tone worried.

Sakura couldn't help but smile at it.

"I'm fine, just a little surprised… that's all." Sakura answered, not quite sure of exactly how she felt. After all, the most sought after bachelor in Konoha just tried to kiss her.

Sasuke scowled and walked towards her. Sakura stared at him. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her and hit her on the head. She winced from the impact.

Naruto pulled her away from Sasuke and glared at him.

"Why the hell did you hit Sakura-chan for?" He asked, holding Sakura tighter to shield her from Sasuke.

"Because idiot, something is obviously wrong with her in the head if she did something to get Itachi's attention like that," He said, scowling the entire time.

Sakura gasped. "Hey! I haven't done anything! It's not my fault your brother has good taste in woman!" She glared at Sasuke. He rolled his eyes at her.

Sai walked over to Sakura and placed his hand on her forehead. She stopped glaring at Sasuke to look confusingly at Sai.

Sai frowned at her.

"Did he do anything before we got here ugly? You're extremely pale." He asked her, looking at her confused. Sakura smiled to herself, proud of how far Sai had gotten in connecting with people.

Sasuke and Naruto tensed up at his question.

"Um, not really… he had me pressed against the counter and was going to kiss me but I pushed him off," She replied, smiling to try to make it seem like not a big deal.

The murderous aura in the room told her that her smile had failed. Naruto tightened his grip on her. Sasuke glared.

"Sai let's go, we're going to report the ice-bastard to the Hokage," Sasuke said, and turned around to leave. Sai looked at Naruto and Sakura before following Sasuke.

Sakura watched them leave, not really caring if Itachi got in trouble at that point. While she was watching them leave, Naruto turned down to look at his with a frown on his face.

The way Itachi held Sakura in his arms, and was so boldly declaring Sakura as his… Naruto narrowed his eyes.

No one was going to steal _his_ Sakura-chan from him.

He pulled her more towards his chest and he buried his face in her hair. He felt Sakura tense slightly at the sudden movement but relaxed into it.

They stayed like that for a couple of minutes before Naruto stole a peak at her face.

His heart jumped into a fast speed at the sight of her face, and he pulled her away from him.

Sakura looked at him in alarm, wondering why she pulled her away so suddenly.

"Sakura-chan! Are you okay? Your face is super red! Do you have a fever?" He asked her in a panic voice, his eyes laced with worry.

At his question, Sakura's eyes widened and she started at him with a blank expression. She then looked at the floor. Naruto tilted his head down to see her face but immediately backed away when he saw the anger flash on it.

"You BAKA!" She screamed at him, punching him in the face which caused him to crash onto the floor. Naruto stared up at the ceiling as he heard Sakura made her way up to her room and heard her door slam shut.

Sakura leaned against her closed door and slid to the ground. She lightly banged her head against the door and looked up. She wasn't red because she had a fever, she was red because she was blushing and the stupid idiot didn't know the difference.

Sakura sighed but become alert when she sensed someone watching her. She looked near her window to see a figure sitting in the frame of her window. She froze.

She was staring straight into a pair of sharingans.

Naruto was just about to knock on her bedroom door when he heard her scream.

Sakura had never sounded so scared.

Naruto slammed open the door.

The curtains on the window were lightly swaying due to the wind from outside. The room itself looked perfectly ordinary.

Except for there was no Sakura to be found inside.

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><p>Tell me what you thought! ;) Reviewwwwwww!<p> 


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